I’m pleased to be able to join my voice to the chorus of people declaring the tremendous success of filmmaker Spike Jonze in translating the beloved children’s book by Maurice Sendak to live action on the big screen. They said it could not be done. They said it should not be done. But Jonze, ever the iconoclast, had it up to “here” with their rules. The result is both miraculous and wondrous. A story book consisting of a mere ten lines of written text is translated to a 100 minute movie with such comfort and skill you’d almost think that Sendak’s Wild Things was a Harry Potter sized novel. The result is nothing short of joyful.

The story is still remarkably simple: young Max (Max Records) after annoying his mother, dressed as a wolf and displaying his innate wildness, retreats into an imaginary world of monsters and other wonders. Max is made their king and he leads them on a wild rumpus and in the construction of fort where only good things are allowed to happen. But of course there’s more to the monsters than just running wild and free, and Max comes to see that the simplicity of life with the monsters can be as complicated and heartbreaking as life at home where his mom sometimes gets mad at him and his big sister’s friends are sometimes mean. You’re so wrapped up in the story though that the subtle complexities Jonze is creating kind of fly right by you.

What’s also weird about this movie is that it sometimes seems designed more for adults to enjoy than the kids. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a kids’ movie that I think kids will love, but the movie seems dedicated to the ones in the audience who remember reading the book when they were young, and are maybe bringing their little ones to see it. The film deviates from the book somewhat – or as much as you can deviate from a story that’s 40 pages long and mostly pictures – but there are neat little Easter Eggs that pay homage to the book’s details. When it’s all said and done, pretty much everything except the sea monster gets a tip of the hat and I’d wager that maybe there’s a sea monster deleted scene out there somewhere.

In the meantime though there are plenty of other monsters to be occupied with and in the film version of the story they all get names and personalities. Carol is the defacto leader until Max comes around, and Carol is the first to embrace him as king and take orders from him. Voiced by James Gandolfini, Carol is Max’s kindred spirit: a little too wild, a little too defiant, a little too eager to engage in imaginative play, and a little too quick to anger when things don’t go his way. It was, at times, a little strange to hear the Jersey-bred intonations of Tony Soprano come out of the lips of a foam-headed monster (the creation of which is tremendous by the way), but I defy anyone to say out loud that they didn’t want to occasionally give Carol a comforting hug. Paul Dano, Catherine O'Hara, Forest Whitaker, Michael Berry Jr., Chris Cooper and Lauren Ambrose provide the voices for the rest of the monsters.

I think it comes down to the words of Kevin N. Laforest, film critic for the Montreal Film Journal, when it comes to feelings about this movie: “I truly hope I never turn into the kind of person who isn't able to enjoy a movie like this.” Hear, hear! I couldn’t help but smile through the whole movie, and I couldn’t help but shed a tear or two when Max left the monsters behind to return to the real world. The movie looks so much like the inside of the 9-year-old me’s head, it’s scary. From the beautiful Australian-filmed scenery to the wonderful soundtrack, every square inch of this movie is lovingly constructed. Where the Wild Things Are is pure art, and judging from the attendance numbers over the weekend, it seems a lot of people agree.